Pickman's Gallery
by Kali Omisha
Summary: This is just a short clip of one of my original characters meeting pickman .
1. Chapter 1

This is from one of my other stories. I grabbed it and fixed it a bit for a short story contest. The rest of it is in my story called "found". Im posting it here as complete, but Its not in the main story.

Nicole ran hard and fast as she held the gun tightly in her small hands incase someone wanted to harm her again. The long black braid bounced on her back as tears of anger fell down her flushed cheeks. She had never felt so angry in all her life. What the hell was wrong with all these people? Why the hell were they trying to kill her?

With a scream of terror Nicole stopped abruptly, almost falling onto her ass when the ground exploded in a sudden shower of dirt and rock.

Her hand trembled as she stared at the giant thing that had emerged. It was definitely bigger than her, it was tan with huge claws and a wicked looking tail that ended in some kind of oozing needle.

Shaking with pure terror the small woman aimed the gun and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happed.

With a scream she threw the gun at the abomination took a few steps back and watched helplessly as the gun bounced comically off one of the massive claws.

The creature snapped each claw and reared its evil looking tail higher. It rushed at the woman, its mandibles grinding together dripping with fluid.

Panic and fear were racing through her mind as she turned to run. She felt pain explode from her face as she collided with a wall that was behind her. She turned to face the monster and gasped in pain. She threw up what little food she had eaten as her leg radiated with what felt like fire. Looking down she saw the needle tip of the tail was buried in her leg. She started hitting and scratching the thickest part trying to get the pain to stop.

It suddenly ripped it's tail out of her leg making her scream out in fresh unknown pain.

Nicole thought she was hallucinating when a tall well trimmed man in a crisp yellow suit ran out of an alleyway and looked in her direction. Nicole's head was spinning as she tried to scream for him to help. She watched as he ran up behind the monster, stomping on its tail as he buried a single blade into the head. He then pulled out a gun and unload bullets one right after another into the remains.

Nicole watched as the monster went limp, gave a shudder and stopped moving.

She stared at the monster for what felt like an eternity when she finally looked up at a hand that was reaching for her. She quickly grabbed the hand and held tight. In a soft melodic tone he smiled as he helped her across the oozing remains. "My my, what is such a beautiful woman doing in such a dangerous place, may I ask the beautiful woman what her name is?"

Nicole looked up at a handsome dark haired man and smiled as he helped her walk away from the dead creature. "My name is Nicole…...I was trying to get back home and I got lost. Thank you…" she let out a startled gasp as she stumbled and fell to her knees.

The man knelt down and gently looked her over and saw she had a wound in her leg from where the creature had struck her.

The man smiled at her as he pulled out a handkerchief and held it firmly on her leg. "Your welcome Nicole, it was because I heard your screams that I came to help. Looks like you were stung, I've got some medicine back at my gallery, if you don't mind I can help you." He smiled and tied the handkerchief tight around her wound.

Nicole smiled at his soft blue eyes and nodded as she brushed her hair back out of her face with her hand. She had a cut on her hand from falling on glass earlier and left a drip of blood rolling down her cheek. She started wipe it away but the man stopped her.

The man smiled as he watched her blood ran down her porcelain face. "You are absolutely stunning, the way your pale skin makes your blood stand out is truly mesmerizing." He stopped talking for a moment and watched her blood drip down her chin and on to her neck. "My name is Pickman. I'm an artist and I'm thinking of starting a new line of art with you being the main feature." He reached his hand out to her face and ran his finger through her blood and put it in his mouth.

Nicole stared at the man in silent horror. Her eyes widened as she felt goosbumps explode across her skin. Nicole tried to push the crazed artist away as she tried to get up and run. She felt her legs fail and she collapsed into Packman's arms.

He wrapped his arms around her and spoke softer as he stoked her hair. "It's the Radscorpion poison darling, makes you week and hard for you to run." Pickman kept an arm wrapped around her and used his other to pullout an ornate leather case. When he opened it He pulled out a syringe and pulled a cap off the needle. "This will make you sleep, cant have you panicking and dying from the poison before I can start my new gallery of paintings."

He pushed the needle into Nicole's arm and pressed down on the plunger. He pulled it out and rubbed where he had injected her. "Soon you'll drift off into a dreamless sleep. Ill take you to my gallery and fix your leg. Then ill start painting." He rocked her as he held her in his arms.

The beautiful woman in his arms started to feel heavy. She looked up at Pickman with tears of fear in her eyes as she took a deep breath and yelled out "JOHN!" she felt her eyes close against her will and passed out with her face on Pickman's chest.


	2. Chapter 2

Nicole shivered as she felt cold damp air on her skin. She took a deep breath as she slowly opened her eyes. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. She looked around trying to make sense of where she was. Looking around she saw candles were lit and it looked like she was in dark sewer like place. She tried to lift her hand to her face and felt it was bound by something. She looked down and saw ropes wrapped tight around her wrists and blood drips down the front of her shirt. Nicole tried remember how she got here, but her mind was still in a thick fog of confusion. She saw movement next to her and saw a man was sitting next to her with a paintbrush in his hand and was painting on a canvas. He looked at Nicole and smiled. "Ah, your awake."

Nicole tried to talk but her mouth was numb and she felt week and dizzy. "Where….whe….?"

The man put his bloody finger on her lip and shushed her. "You need to be quiet love. You've provided me with a lot of beautiful paint. When I saw the red blood on your porcelain skin I was inspired. Your beauty will live on long with this part of the series."

Nicole was confused. The man smiled as he touched her face with the paintbrush and went back to painting. He sighed and shook his head as he looked at the brush. "Oh dear, looks like the paint is starting to dry again, time to freshen the pallet."

Nicole watched as he pulled out a knife. He looked at her face and gently placed the knife to her cheek pressing it into her skin. Nicole gritted her teeth and whimpered out in pain as he made a fresh cut.

"Shh, don't cry love, soon we can start the next half of my paintings. You can cry then." He placed the brush in her fresh blood and smiled as it dripped down her cheek and onto her shirt.

Nicole shivered with cold and fear as he turned back to the canvas and continued to paint while he hummed. He painted for a few more minutes then turned the painting for Nicole to look at.

It was a painting of her done entirely out of her blood. It was sick and beautiful at the same time.

"Now we can start on the next part. I have been looking for just the right person for this. I normally only use raiders for my works of art, but raiders are ugly. You my dear have a rare beauty that I have never seen anywhere." He pulled out a syringe and held it up for Nicole to look at. "You know what I'm going to call my next gallery of paintings?"

Nicole shook her head and struggled with the ropes on her hands and feet. "Please, I just want to go home. Let me go please, I won't tell anyone about this place…" She felt tears fall down her cheeks and burn the shallow cuts on her face.

He smiled as he uncapped the syringe and placed it against Nicole's arm. He looked at her face as he pushed the needle in. "I'm going to call it, Ghoulish beauty, it will be grand! I will finally have art worth putting my name on. Pickman will be just as memorable as Michelangelo." He pushed the plunger forcing the fluid into Nicole's veins.

Nicole gasped as pain instantly radiated from her arm and spread through her body. It felt like fire was burning her from the inside out. Nicole looked up with wide eyes and screamed. "Make it stop! Please make it stop!"

The burning continued as her world started spinning. Nicole felt hot tears roll down her face.

Pickman's eyes went wide as he pulled the syringe from her arm and picked up a fresh canvas placing it on to the easel and started painting with her blood. "What a beautiful unexpected reaction, bloody tears. I would have never thought to do such a profound thing." He worked with a smile as he painted with fresh inspiration.

Nicole started to gasp as the burning pain intensified. Nicole couldn't stand it no more and passed out.

(Hancock)

When Nick showed Hancock the calling card that was in the alleyway next to a dead radscorpion with one of Nicole's shoes under its claw, Hancock ran off yelling for Nick to follow him.

Hancock had explained to Nick that Pickman was a sadistic man that used raider blood and bodies for his sick and twisted works of art. He let Pickman live only because he killed raiders keeping the raider population down around GoodNeighbor.

When they arrived at Pickman's Gallery Nick saw his art work and shook his head in disgust.

They were almost at the entrance to the sewers under the gallery when they heard Nicole's pain filled screams.

Hancock and Nick ran as fast as they could and came up on a terrifying scene.

Nicole was limp and was tied to a wooden chair. Pickman was paining on a canvas and was dabbing the paintbrush into the blood that was dripping from a cut on her cheek. Hancock didn't say a single word as he leveled his shot gun to the back of Pickman's head. "I told you never to hurt good people Pickman. I told you I would blow your head off the moment I found out you were hurting said good people."

Pickman nodded his head. "Yeah, I know, but she was so beautiful I couldn't resist. Soon that beauty will be gone and she will be the opposite of what she is now."

Hancock squinted at Pickman. "What?"

Pickman laughed as he held up a familiar looking syringe. "Look familiar Hancock? Found the last one hidden away in the same place you found your…."

Hancock puled the trigger on his shot gun, Pickman ceased to exist as his head was rendered a bloody mess.

Hancock rushed to Nicole and started cutting the ropes that held her to the chair. She was sweaty to the touch and was burning up. Hancock caught her as she fell foreword out of the chair and into his arms.

Nick knelt down next to Nicole and Hancock as he placed his hand on her forehead. "Please tell me that wasn't what I think it was John."

Hancock shook his head as he ran a hand through her black hair and ended up with a handful of hair in his hand. "I'm sorry Nick, I really fucked shit up this time."

Nicole's eyes opened suddenly. She curled up into a ball on Hancock's lap and started screaming in pain as her skin started burning from the concentrated radiation that was in the syringe. Nicole was turning into a ghoul.


End file.
